Nintendo Wii launch breaks UK record

Nintendo has sold more than 105,000 Wiis in the UK since the games console went on sale over here first thing last Friday morning. According to the videogames pioneer, punters took possession of 50,000 Wiis during the first 12 hours it was available.

ChartTrack statistics cited by GamesIndustry.biz show more than double that number of Wiis were sold throughout the weekend. What isn't clear is how many of those - and, indeed, the units sold on Friday - were pre-orders.

That breaks the record set by Microsoft's Xbox 360 when some 70,000 units were sold in the console's first weekend on sale.

Still, it's not been plain sailing for Nintendo. On the day the Wii launched in the UK, Nintendo US back-pedalled from a statement put out the day before indicating it would ship more than 1m Wiis in the US by the end of 2006, GameDailyBiz reported at the time.

Have units been re-directed to Europe? Certainly, demand here is strong and supply doesn't appear to be meeting it - witness the ridiculous prices consoles are commanding on eBay, with Wiis going for more than twice the retail price.

Last week, US retail market watcher NPD said Nintendo sold 476,000 Wiis in the US during November - the console launched there on the 19th, two days after the PlayStation 3. By contrast, Sony sold 197,000 PS3s and Microsoft 511,000 Xbox 360s, though it had the whole month to work with. ®